ESTONIA 2012 - Ott Lepland - Kuula

[dezbee2008]

Can't stand this song. But still not last place.

 

[Stargazer]

Definitely one of the better ballads this year. The chorus has a really lovely melody. 7 points from moi.

 

[RobinHood]

One thing you must remember is that Estonia does not want to impress the Europe. Ever since we won the ESC (well, the voting was rigged that year btw) average Estonian couldnt care less if we won or became last. That`s why we have a song competition called Eesti Laul not Eurovision Song Contest pre-selection. Nowadays Estonia can come up with the best song ever and still not win ESC. Just look at what happened with Rändajad. Such a masterpiece only became 7th? ... there`s no way Estonia can do much better than that, so why not go out and select the song that WE like, while not giving a damn what Europe thinks?

 

[Cooler]

He looks so innocent, like a child, even though he's 24.

I love the song. #5 in my ranking.

 

[Stargazer]

One thing you must remember is that Estonia does not want to impress the Europe. Ever since we won the ESC (well, the voting was rigged that year btw) average Estonian couldnt care less if we won or became last. That`s why we have a song competition called Eesti Laul not Eurovision Song Contest pre-selection. Nowadays Estonia can come up with the best song ever and still not win ESC. Just look at what happened with Rändajad. Such a masterpiece only became 7th? ... there`s no way Estonia can do much better than that, so why not go out and select the song that WE like, while not giving a damn what Europe thinks?

Rändajad came 6th actually, which is still a great place. I agree that it's a masterpiece, but I also think that it might not have been to everyone's taste. It's not exactly mainstream. I was surprised it received as many points as it did, I thought people wouldn't like it. A lot of countries can come up with "the best song ever", but there can only be one winner. Just because you ended up 6th doesn't mean nobody wanted you to win. A lot of people did since they voted for you. But you still only had a 1/25 chance of winning.

 

[exciter]

Listen and listen and listen and...just listen this song! Amazing! Powerful song especially with Dolby Digital in my home!

 

[eerik]

One thing you must remember is that Estonia does not want to impress the Europe. Ever since we won the ESC (well, the voting was rigged that year btw) average Estonian couldnt care less if we won or became last. That`s why we have a song competition called Eesti Laul not Eurovision Song Contest pre-selection. Nowadays Estonia can come up with the best song ever and still not win ESC. Just look at what happened with Rändajad. Such a masterpiece only became 7th? ... there`s no way Estonia can do much better than that, so why not go out and select the song that WE like, while not giving a damn what Europe thinks?

Not entirely true. Eurovision was still important to many people after we had won. The apathy started to grow in the second half of the decade, when we had not qualified for the final in a long strike of years. Leto Svet winning Eurolaul 2008 by a large margin of televotes was a clear sign that change was needed and luckily Eesti Laul provided it. Also, the situation in Estonia ten years ago was very different. It was barely ten years since we regained our independence and we still had that "random hellhole in Eastern Europe" reputation. Estonians wanted to be treated as Europeans, and competing in Eurovision was one way of achieving that. Let me remind you that people in Northern-Estonia were able to watch Eurovision "illegally" through Finnish television long before the collapse of Soviet Union, and covers of the songs were made overnight. This isn't the case anymore. We are now part of European Union, Eurozone, NATO, OECD, etc. -- well integrated into Europe. And nowadays there are a lot of other countries who wish to identify themselves as part of Europe through Eurovision.

 

[Matt]

One thing you must remember is that Estonia does not want to impress the Europe. Ever since we won the ESC (well, the voting was rigged that year btw) average Estonian couldnt care less if we won or became last. That`s why we have a song competition called Eesti Laul not Eurovision Song Contest pre-selection. Nowadays Estonia can come up with the best song ever and still not win ESC. Just look at what happened with Rändajad. Such a masterpiece only became 7th? ... there`s no way Estonia can do much better than that, so why not go out and select the song that WE like, while not giving a damn what Europe thinks?

The voting was rigged how? Please provide us with some sources cause that's the first I have heard of that.

And why does everyone want to be the victim. "Poor us, we are never going to win again". Estonia's victory was only 11 years ago, that's not that long ago. Imagine how Portugal must feel. Or Netherlands, France, Spain etc. With over 40 countries participating you should expect a victory every 40 something years.

And as others pointed out already, just cause you feel that Randajad was the best song in 2009 doesn't mean everyone agrees with you. It's all subjective and I agree with you that Estonia should pick the song they like and not worry about the results but I don't think you can speak on behalf of the whole country just because you feel a certain way.

 

[RobinHood]

The voting was rigged how? Please provide us with some sources cause that's the first I have heard of that.

And why does everyone want to be the victim. "Poor us, we are never going to win again". Estonia's victory was only 11 years ago, that's not that long ago. Imagine how Portugal must feel. Or Netherlands, France, Spain etc. With over 40 countries participating you should expect a victory every 40 something years.

And as others pointed out already, just cause you feel that Randajad was the best song in 2009 doesn't mean everyone agrees with you. It's all subjective and I agree with you that Estonia should pick the song they like and not worry about the results but I don't think you can speak on behalf of the whole country just because you feel a certain way.

If you dont know how it was rigged I guess you are not supposed to know. It is not a big secret here in Estonia and even if you use your brains and look at where Estonia was placed before the contest that year (almost dead last) you should assume that something was wrong. And dont get me wrong I dont feel like Estonia is being victimized. I see it more of a good thing that we do not win. Especially during current times of economical struggles all around the Europe. Is it only me or has somebody else noticed how recent winners have been countries who have enough money (Russia, Norway, Germany now Azerbaijan). Good luck to Greece, Ireland, Portugal and Spain this year!

My point is towards those who complain how we had 9 good songs and choose the only wrong one to represent us and how this will fail so bad in this ballads filled semi-final. STFU is all I have to say. It was our choice and we dont mind failing miserably cause this is not really a song contest, but more of a show contest where winner gets decided by who strips most on the stage and has more political friends ... and maybe only 30% of by actual quality of the song.

 

[eerik]

Excuse me, but what have you been smoking and what the fff are you talking about?

 

[RobinHood]

Excuse me, but what have you been smoking and what the fff are you talking about?

You are excused.

 

[RobinHood]

For those who understand Estonian http://uudised.err.ee/index.php?0560466

Article is from 2006. The year Estonia won was 2001 first year tele-voting was used. I guess ESC organizers were not smart enough for Skype using Estonians (probably only took few of them) back then. I am amazed people here dont know that little fact ...

 

[CypriotGirl]

I started liking this song! It's nice and emotional! I can see it in my top 15 right now!

 

[eerik]

For those who understand Estonian http://uudised.err.ee/index.php?0560466

Article is from 2006. The year Estonia won was 2001 first year tele-voting was used. I guess ESC organizers were not smart enough for Skype using Estonians (probably only took few of them) back then. I am amazed people here dont know that little fact ...

And how is this related to our victory in 2001?

 

[A-lister]

^
Actually, there was articles and "news" back in those years about how EBU rigged victory for both Estonia and Latvia because of the upcoming EU integration and officials wanting to "smooth their way into EU" by showing off they were "worthy".

For non-Europeans, it might be difficult to see Eurovision as a political tool, but there have been serious political papers on the subject of Eurovision. Anyone who follows this should know by now that politics are very much involved.

I'm not saying those accusations are true, I'm just saying there was talk and articles about this back in the days.

 

[94ayd]

For those who understand Estonian http://uudised.err.ee/index.php?0560466

Article is from 2006. The year Estonia won was 2001 first year tele-voting was used. I guess ESC organizers were not smart enough for Skype using Estonians (probably only took few of them) back then. I am amazed people here dont know that little fact ...

Um, noooooo, that was 1997 (5/25), with 1998 being the first one where the majority used it (21/25). In fact, only 17/25 used televoting solely in 2001, with 3 using a combination of jury and televoting and 3 - only jury voting.

 

[RobinHood]

And how is this related to our victory in 2001?

Finns were only the 2nd nation to try it. It was first (successfully) tried in 2001. Again it was the first year with tele-voting so probably not very advanced systems by EBU to avoid such things. There were several articles about it right after we won (bothered to google for them), but the subject died because of obvious uncomfortable reasons for EBU. If you put those "rumours" (for me not only rumours) and what result Estonia was expected to get (from polls before the contest) together it doent really take a lot of IQ to understand what happened. But of course everyone has the right to believe what they want and look elsewhere.

 

[RobinHood]

Um, noooooo, that was 1997 (5/25), with 1998 being the first one where the majority used it (21/25). In fact, only 17/25 used televoting solely in 2001, with 3 using a combination of jury and televoting and 3 - only jury voting.

yes, its true, I messed it up here.

 

[eerik]

Finns were only the 2nd nation to try it. It was first (successfully) tried in 2001. Again it was the first year with tele-voting so probably not very advanced systems by EBU to avoid such things. There were several articles about it right after we won (bothered to google for them), but the subject died because of obvious uncomfortable reasons for EBU. If you put those "rumours" (for me not only rumours) and what result Estonia was expected to get (from polls before the contest) together it doent really take a lot of IQ to understand what happened. But of course everyone has the right to believe what they want and look elsewhere.

You do realise that your statements don't make any sense. To begin with, we won in May 2001, first public version of Skype was released in 2003. And why should I care what some random polls and bookmakers odds are telling? Remember last year, right? We were supposed to be at least in top 5.

 

[LakZaNokte]

best ballad this year. liked it at first listening, now I adore it

btw, what is "kuula"? (curious mostly cause in croatian, "kula" is a tower, like from medieval castles etc)